3D Virtual Tours For Hawaii Real Estate: Do's and Don'ts

Listing Your Property For Sale: 3D Tours

When listing your Maui property for sale, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the latest presentation tools and evaluate whether or not they help or hinder the sales process.

Hawaii Life has invested in 3D scanning technology that allows buyers to virtually walk through certain Maui home or condo listings from pretty much anywhere in the world. Think “Google Street View” for your listing.

As a fan of emerging technology and a listing specialist, I am delighted to offer this technology to my seller clients at no additional cost, but I also acknowledge that there are properties for which this is a home run, and properties that need a different approach.

Matterport 3D Tours For Maui Real Estate: How It Works

Using laser technology in combination with automated HDR photography, the Matterport system essentially accomplishes three things:

1. It provides high quality 360-degree photographic views of the interior space.
2. It creates a 3D model of the architecture – the “dollhouse view” that can be navigated and explored via the drag of a finger or the click of a mouse depending on what device you have in front of you. (Even 3D VR Goggles!)
3. It creates an automated walk-through tour that can be initiated with a simple button press.

 
Here’s a demonstration video of me playing around with the dollhouse view:

Since we have a huge diversity of real estate here on Maui, I immediately imagined the great benefits this would bring to my listings, but I also realized there could be certain types of properties that would not benefit from such a comprehensive tour. So without further ado, here is my list of do’s and don’ts.

3D Tours in Real Estate: The “Do”s!

• Do scan houses and condos that are well kept, well staged, and in very good condition.
• Do scan vacation rental properties that are booked solidly and are hard to show – what a great way to allow your listing to get maximum exposure without disturbing vacation rental guests.
• Do scan lanais and outdoor spaces with views where possible. In Hawaii, we love our outdoor space and we want to encourage people to understand that real estate extends beyond the walls of our house or condo
• Do hire a competent Realtor such as myself who understands how best to convey your property’s value to the buying public. 🙂

 
Here’s a great example of a vacation rental condo that shows beautifully in a virtual tour:

3D Virtual Tour “Don’t”s

• Don’t scan properties that are cluttered, in poor condition, “fixers” et cetera. The benefits of these properties are in their inherent potential, not often in their photographic charm. You know what I’m saying? If your client is a borderline hoarder, as a marketing specialist, you want to concentrate on the benefits of the property, and you don’t want to turn a potential buyer off with a 3D tour of someone’s troll doll collection.
• Don’t scan on inclement weather days. This is a pet peeve of mine – grey or rainy photography. Think of these scans as moments in time preserved for digital eternity. Interior light and views are severely impacted by inclement weather in Hawaii. While weather is a fact of life, we want to showcase the property and its environment at its best.
• Don’t scan properties with problematic layouts, or poor interior design. If the intrinsic value of the property is not in the architecture – perhaps in the stunning garden, or poetic view, but not in the house, concentrate on what will bring a buyer for a visit. Know that any interior “warts” in a house will be forever preserved in the 3D tour!
• Don’t scan garages or storage rooms unless they are noteworthy for some particular uncommon feature.
• Don’t scan properties with people or animals in them! Think of this is a real showing – we want our buyers to enjoy the space unencumbered by personalities or pets that could potentially be a turn off.

Going Deeper into Cyber Real Estate – Virtual Reality Goggles

Geek Alert! For the true virtual reality fan, strap on a pair of Samsung VR Gear goggles, pop some dramamine and get ready to stroll through the property using motion sensing 3D immersive tech.

Wow – I personally haven’t tried this yet, but am looking forward to getting my VR on with these goggles. Some report dizziness and there is the risk of bumping into objects in your real environment, so proceed with caution!

Stay tuned for a future blog article on my first Goggle VR experience.

Best Ways to Navigate the 3D Tours

As an end user, there are a number of different ways to navigate through the 3D space:

On a mobile phone, you simply touch and drag the scene around – double tap to move to a different part of the property. It takes a little getting used to – this is the navigation technique used in my above demonstration video.

On a laptop, using the arrow keys is really a fast and easy way to fly through the space.

Here is a tour of one of the Villas at Hokulani Golf Villas:

For expert listing services for your Maui real estate, please contact me and we can talk about marketing strategy.  

Liam Ball, R(B)
808.280.7809
liamball@hawaiilife.com

Oh and one more thing – hey, why stop at real estate virtual tours? Here’s a tour of a private jet…